Loren W. Burger, Jr.

An understanding of the mechanisms by which northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) populations respond to old-field habitat management is important to evaluate efficacy of these practices. We examined reproductive strategies and success of 114 radio-marked bobwhite on a managed wildlife area in east-central Mississippi during 1994—1996. Fifteen female and 5 male bobwhite incubated 23 nests. Male-incubated nests, female-incubated first nests, and female-incubated renests contributed 21.7%, 65.2%, and 13.0% to total nesting effort, respectively. Female-incubated first nests and male-...

Northern bobwhite populations have been declining throughout most of their range. Population declines imply that mortality consistently exceeds production and therefore a thorough understanding of the causes and temporal distribution of mortality is important. We present Heisey-Fuller estimates of monthly survival and cause-specific mortality rates of 1,001 radio-marked bobwhite on private lands in northern Missouri during 1989-1992. Monthly survival rate was lowest during the hunting season (November-January)(jc = 0.639), intermediate during the breeding season (May-September) (x = 0.815...